POWER OPTIONS FOR PUDDLEDUCK

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Pull on the main halyard to raise the sail. Secure the loose end of the line to one cleat at the foot of the mast.

Pull on the snotter until it raises the sail and cinches the peak tight. Secure the loose end to a cleat.

Pull down on the downhaul until the luff is taut, and secure the loose end to a cleat on the mast.

Now, get in, grab the main sheet and the tiller and shove off. Lower the leeboard when water is deep enough. When you feel the wind, haul in on the sheet until the sail fills, apply rudder pressure away from the direction of a crossing or head-on wind and you're sailing! Keep the sheet tight enough so that the sail does not flutter or luff—another meaning for the word just to confuse you even more.

To change tacks, pull on the sheet and turn the rudder away from the wind so the boat "comes around"—so the bow passes through the wind briskly. As wind fills the sail from the other direction, pay out the sheet and apply opposite rudder.

When you turn away from the wind so that it comes at you from the side, you are on a "broad reach" and you will really go like the wind! Watch your angle or "heel" lest the lee rail goes under and you ship water.

To go downwind off a tack or reach, turn the rudder gradually into the wind and hold on as the boat turns, the sheet pays out and the sail fills. Whee! You may want to shift weight to the rear as speed increases so the bow will stay up.

Always keep wind pressure on the sheet—hauling in quick when wind goes slack—and you won't get snap boom swings or "jibes"—when the sail swings through a following wind. And you can find yourself enveloped in canvas or even pushed overboard.

Never be tempted to tie the sheet fast. Hand-hold it always so you can loosen the line and spill a sudden wind gust that is strong enough to lay PuddleDuck over so far that her rail goes under or the sail decides to take a dip ...and take you swimming with it! . . .

And Fancier Still

The lazy way to power your small craft is to put a small gas-powered "kicker" engine or an electric-trolling motor on the transom-sterned model. PuddleDuck would sink stern first with a 35-horse power waterskiing-size gas engine or even a big 40-pound thrust electric troller and its deep-cycle battery. But, a two horse power, single-cylinder putt-putt or a twopound thrust electric will move her along just fine.

You'll find little "antique" air-cooled gas engines and used electric trolling motors advertised in the Outdoor Sport Classifieds for $25 to $50. A new electric motor costs only $75, and a motorcycle battery and small charger will cost about the same, new, or used. So, for $50 and up you can cruise under power with the cheery "putt-putt-putt" of a kicker or, in the pristine silence of an electric. Either way, you will travel at the elegant, deliberate pace of an earlier era. Build a lightweight canopy frame from PVC plumbing pipe, make a fringed canopy from white rayon and pack a lunch in a wicker basket to complete the turn-of-the-century motif.

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